As China gears up to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic on Oct. 1, the country's security watchdogs are on alert for threats to the big celebration. The government is calling for "greater efforts to maintain public order and social stability," the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sept. 28. In Beijing alone, 800,000 people have offered themselves as "safety volunteers," Xinhua reports.
Part of the campaign to ensure a smooth anniversary includes an intensified effort to limit access to China's Internet, say anti-censorship activists outside the country. "They have tried everything they can" to block software that helps people evade censorship, says Bill Xia, president of U.S.-based Dynamic Internet Technology, a company that has developed Freegate, software that enables users to circumvent censors by rerouting traffic through proxy servers. While there's always a high level of censorship in China, says Xia, the campaign ahead of National Day this year is more comprehensive than usual. "This time they have really put a lot of resources to this," he says.
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